St Xavier's eyes academic collaborations with Harvard

College authorities feel Harvard College in Asia Project 2007 is a first
step in that direction

A N exchange programme of students and teachers at the academic level
between St Xavier's College, Mumbai and Harvard University-that's what St
Xavier's College is aiming at and the ongoing Harvard College in Asia
Project (HCAP) 2007, feels the college, is the first step in that direction.
"We need to be at par with international standards. Exchange programmes help
us in exploring contacts and we are now looking at deeper academic
associations and collaborations with universities like Harvard and Berkley,"
said college Prin cipal Father Frazer.

As part of Harvard University's HCAP-2007, 16 students from the university
are in Mumbai to participate in the Indian chapter of an exchange programme
at St Xavier's College, Mumbai from March 25 to April 1.

"An important aspect of the programme is its strong emphasis on
student-to-stu dent interaction," said Sapna Purohit, director of
International Programmes at the college.

HCAP was founded in October 2003 and it serves as a platform for student
exploration and development with the objective of strengthening
international relations by sponsoring exchange conferences with the top
universities in Asia.

Accordingly, students from the Asian institutes come to Harvard in February
to attend the Harvard Conference which is followed by a similar visit by
Harvard students in MarchApril wherein they attend conferences at the
partner schools across Asia.

St Xavier's College (Mumbai) was selected as the Indian partner school for
HCAP-2007. "It was an excellent opportunity, a multi-cultural activity
wherein we gained perspective on various issues and were exposed to a
different system of education," said St Xavier's student and Mumbai chapter
chairperson Andrea Quadros.

Earlier, 10 students from St Xavier's had visited Harvard along with the
students from the other five Asian institutes from February 11 to 18th to
participate in the conference held in the US.

Child labour, globalisation and reconstructing Iraq and entrepreneurship
were some of the issues discussed during the visits.

"Besides the important issues we got to discuss, we were taken all around
Mumbai and that has been a fantastic experience," said Rebecca Fleming from
Harvard College.

The other Asian partners this year include Peking University, University of
Hong Kong, National University of Singapore, University of Tokyo and
Technological University of Malaysia.

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